Sunderland at DW | Page 11 | Vital Football

Sunderland at DW

What tonight has shown is the difference in the respective squads, one of which could cope with three or four key players being absent and one that would struggle. Those who thought Sunderland's second string were vastly inferior need to give their heads a wobble.
 
jeffs right said:
I think they were fair comments. No over reaction whatever. It really was poor tonight.
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🤣🤣🤣🤣
There's been a MASSIVE over reaction tonight.
People losing their shit over a cup competition we had absolutely no chance of winning anyway 🤦
We got to the 3rd round without getting out of 1st gear, and tonight was no different.

STOP. BLOODY. PANICKING...
 
Proud Latic said:
I can't comment on tonight because I didn't see the game but I've been very impressed with the contribution of Humphrys so far. I think he'll be a good player for us.
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You can't judge Humphries on tonights game. Awful service and by half way through the second half he had obviously had enough of being the loan wolf chasing shadows.

I thought Edwards showed some attacking intent and at least beat a few players. Whereas the rest were either lacking commitment or I suspect outplayed by better players.
We never seemed to win the challenges that were 50/50 and they looked capable of scoring every time they went forward.

Not sure we were ever interested in winning this game. As a pensioner I paid £8 for my ticket and commented at half time that I didn't feel I had had my 4 quids worth. Just about got value for £4 in second half.
 
pie eater said:
What tonight has shown is the difference in the respective squads, one of which could cope with three or four key players being absent and one that would struggle. Those who thought Sunderland's second string were vastly inferior need to give their heads a wobble.
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Tonight showed us nothing.
Leam wasn't bothered, and for all we know, he might've told them to take it easy.

Won't be losing any sleep over it, that's for sure...
 
Oscarbon said:
You can't judge Humphries on tonights game. Awful service and by half way through the second half he had obviously had enough of being the loan wolf chasing shadows.

I thought Edwards showed some attacking intent and at least beat a few players. Whereas the rest were either lacking commitment or I suspect outplayed by better players.
We never seemed to win the challenges that were 50/50 and they looked capable of scoring every time they went forward.

Not sure we were ever interested in winning this game. As a pensioner I paid £8 for my ticket and commented at half time that I didn't feel I had had my 4 quids worth. Just about got value for £4 in second half.
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Was there any atmosphere? How were the Sunderland fans?
 
1600 Sunderland fans were pretty loud and vociferous but if thats the sort of football they play every match then they have something to get excited about.
 
Both sides played their reserves, on paper their second string was no better than ours but the was a huge gulf in tactics and style of play.

Sunderland had lots of method to everything they did, loads of movement, always willing runners, plenty of options in posession, very few long balls. In contrast we had absolutely zero method, no movement, no one wanted the ball all we did was hoof it to an isolated Humphrys and lost it every time. We knew before a ball was kicked he wouldn't win anything in the air and Massey, Edwards and Jones aren't going to beat anyone in a battle if you are playing long constantly. It was a terrible tactic to start with and we made no attempt to switch it - if Sunderland could've picked our tactics for us to guarentee we caused them no problems they'd have asked us to do what we did tonight.

Only 1 side made any attempt to play football tonight and it wasn't us. We got a footballing lesson as they walked through us and unlike other games where we successfully dragged teams into a battle and out worked and out fight them - Sunderland just weren't getting sucked into our game and just had us chasing shadows with their pass and move.

The thing is we've played that type of ineffective long ball a lot this season, but the difference is we've had better players on the pitch to compensate for it and opposition teams weren't anywhere near as good as Sunderland in punishing us for it. The last 2 league games have seen us improve somewhat in our style of play but this long ball we seem quite keen to use has been threatening to come back and bite us and tonight it finally did.

We've done enough to earn good results so the style hasn't really been scrutinised that much, but it's undeniable the less long ball we play the better we are. So I've felt a performance like tonight was going to come at some point and hopefully it is a bit of a wake up call to see us the contrast in both sides approaches and how their style made football look easy and ours made it look so hard. I'm glad that happened in a cup game rather than a league game and I hope it really speeds up the phasing out of so much of this type of long ball as it's been a deliberate tactic that just doesn't work.

I'm not bothered we are out of the cup, but that performance did bother me and if it was a league game I'd be seething with it. I'm not willing to accept that team wasn't good enough - that team was full of good players - but the issue tonight is whoever you start that style of hoof and hope was never going to work against Sunderlands tactics. Also a lot of players tonight simply didn't take any responsibility - when they passed a ball they stood still rather than make a run or reposition for a return pass. When their team mates had the ball they weren't showing for it or asking for it - there was never any options. So players and coaching staff got it wrong tonight - coaching staff picking dreadful tactics and the players didn't have any intensity or urgency either. You give credit when it's due after Accy but critasism is certainly due after tonight.

Amos - made a couple of decent saves, had no chance on either goal.

Lloyd - didn't have any attacking impact on the game and on the back foot defensively throughout.

Pearce - had one or two decent crosses but offered very little going forward and didn't impress defensively. He's just not looked the same player this season. That 450k move to Barnsley he rejected is looking increasingly like it will backfire for us.

Tilt was excellent for me, MOTM.

Kerr I felt showed a lot of promise, it wasn't a perfect debut but I felt it was pretty decent. He also probably won't play a team who play better football than Sunderland did tonight so it was a bit of a hard first outing.

Cousins - when it's going well he looks like a composed, calming influence but when it's not going well he just doesn't seem to do enough. Tonight was the later unfortunately.

Smith - one of the few who I think constantly showed for the ball and tried to take responsibility but he had very little help in trying to get things going. Had a decent game, there's a lot of Max Power about him.

Edwards - none of the attacking midfield trio got the ball much at feet with most balls just pumped over their heads but they never really came short to link up and get the ball or push up to help Humphrys. Edwards just didn't do anything really.

Massey - named captain tonight and played more as a no10 in Richardson's latest attempt to try and tease something resembling a performance out of him. It didn't work, he's a lost cause.

Jones - showed a few glimpses of quality but not enough.

Humphrys - totally isolated with no service. He's never been a target man so set up to fail with the balls played at him.

Overall it was a terrible game from our perspective but I think in football you sometimes don't really learn or change without a frustrating or painful loss. Today really highlighted our weaknesses and showed us a better alternative- hopefully it will be a valuable lesson learned that we can avoid making again in the league.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
Both sides played their reserves, on paper their second string was no better than ours but the was a huge gulf in tactics and style of play.

Sunderland had lots of method to everything they did, loads of movement, always willing runners, plenty of options in posession, very few long balls. In contrast we had absolutely zero method, no movement, no one wanted the ball all we did was hoof it to an isolated Humphrys and lost it every time. We knew before a ball was kicked he wouldn't win anything in the air and Massey, Edwards and Jones aren't going to beat anyone in a battle if you are playing long constantly. It was a terrible tactic to start with and we made no attempt to switch it - if Sunderland could've picked our tactics for us to guarentee we caused them no problems they'd have asked us to do what we did tonight.

Only 1 side made any attempt to play football tonight and it wasn't us. We got a footballing lesson as they walked through us and unlike other games where we successfully dragged teams into a battle and out worked and out fight them - Sunderland just weren't getting sucked into our game and just had us chasing shadows with their pass and move.

The thing is we've played that type of ineffective long ball a lot this season, but the difference is we've had better players on the pitch to compensate for it and opposition teams weren't anywhere near as good as Sunderland in punishing us for it. The last 2 league games have seen us improve somewhat in our style of play but this long ball we seem quite keen to use has been threatening to come back and bite us and tonight it finally did.

We've done enough to earn good results so the style hasn't really been scrutinised that much, but it's undeniable the less long ball we play the better we are. So I've felt a performance like tonight was going to come at some point and hopefully it is a bit of a wake up call to see us the contrast in both sides approaches and how their style made football look easy and ours made it look so hard. I'm glad that happened in a cup game rather than a league game and I hope it really speeds up the phasing out of so much of this type of long ball as it's been a deliberate tactic that just doesn't work.

I'm not bothered we are out of the cup, but that performance did bother me and if it was a league game I'd be seething with it. I'm not willing to accept that team wasn't good enough - that team was full of good players - but the issue tonight is whoever you start that style of hoof and hope was never going to work against Sunderlands tactics. Also a lot of players tonight simply didn't take any responsibility - when they passed a ball they stood still rather than make a run or reposition for a return pass. When their team mates had the ball they weren't showing for it or asking for it - there was never any options. So players and coaching staff got it wrong tonight - coaching staff picking dreadful tactics and the players didn't have any intensity or urgency either. You give credit when it's due after Accy but critasism is certainly due after tonight.

Amos - made a couple of decent saves, had no chance on either goal.

Lloyd - didn't have any attacking impact on the game and on the back foot defensively throughout.

Pearce - had one or two decent crosses but offered very little going forward and didn't impress defensively. He's just not looked the same player this season. That 450k move to Barnsley he rejected is looking increasingly like it will backfire for us.

Tilt was excellent for me, MOTM.

Kerr I felt showed a lot of promise, it wasn't a perfect debut but I felt it was pretty decent. He also probably won't play a team who play better football than Sunderland did tonight so it was a bit of a hard first outing.

Cousins - when it's going well he looks like a composed, calming influence but when it's not going well he just doesn't seem to do enough. Tonight was the later unfortunately.

Smith - one of the few who I think constantly showed for the ball and tried to take responsibility but he had very little help in trying to get things going. Had a decent game, there's a lot of Max Power about him.

Edwards - none of the attacking midfield trio got the ball much at feet with most balls just pumped over their heads but they never really came short to link up and get the ball or push up to help Humphrys. Edwards just didn't do anything really.

Massey - named captain tonight and played more as a no10 in Richardson's latest attempt to try and tease something resembling a performance out of him. It didn't work, he's a lost cause.

Jones - showed a few glimpses of quality but not enough.

Humphrys - totally isolated with no service. He's never been a target man so set up to fail with the balls played at him.

Overall it was a terrible game from our perspective but I think in football you sometimes don't really learn or change without a frustrating or painful loss. Today really highlighted our weaknesses and showed us a better alternative- hopefully it will be a valuable lesson learned that we can avoid making again in the league.
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Not really.
1 team wanted to win ...the other team didn’t ...move on, nothing to see here.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
Both sides played their reserves, on paper their second string was no better than ours but the was a huge gulf in tactics and style of play.

Sunderland had lots of method to everything they did, loads of movement, always willing runners, plenty of options in posession, very few long balls. In contrast we had absolutely zero method, no movement, no one wanted the ball all we did was hoof it to an isolated Humphrys and lost it every time. We knew before a ball was kicked he wouldn't win anything in the air and Massey, Edwards and Jones aren't going to beat anyone in a battle if you are playing long constantly. It was a terrible tactic to start with and we made no attempt to switch it - if Sunderland could've picked our tactics for us to guarentee we caused them no problems they'd have asked us to do what we did tonight.

Only 1 side made any attempt to play football tonight and it wasn't us. We got a footballing lesson as they walked through us and unlike other games where we successfully dragged teams into a battle and out worked and out fight them - Sunderland just weren't getting sucked into our game and just had us chasing shadows with their pass and move.

The thing is we've played that type of ineffective long ball a lot this season, but the difference is we've had better players on the pitch to compensate for it and opposition teams weren't anywhere near as good as Sunderland in punishing us for it. The last 2 league games have seen us improve somewhat in our style of play but this long ball we seem quite keen to use has been threatening to come back and bite us and tonight it finally did.

We've done enough to earn good results so the style hasn't really been scrutinised that much, but it's undeniable the less long ball we play the better we are. So I've felt a performance like tonight was going to come at some point and hopefully it is a bit of a wake up call to see us the contrast in both sides approaches and how their style made football look easy and ours made it look so hard. I'm glad that happened in a cup game rather than a league game and I hope it really speeds up the phasing out of so much of this type of long ball as it's been a deliberate tactic that just doesn't work.

I'm not bothered we are out of the cup, but that performance did bother me and if it was a league game I'd be seething with it. I'm not willing to accept that team wasn't good enough - that team was full of good players - but the issue tonight is whoever you start that style of hoof and hope was never going to work against Sunderlands tactics. Also a lot of players tonight simply didn't take any responsibility - when they passed a ball they stood still rather than make a run or reposition for a return pass. When their team mates had the ball they weren't showing for it or asking for it - there was never any options. So players and coaching staff got it wrong tonight - coaching staff picking dreadful tactics and the players didn't have any intensity or urgency either. You give credit when it's due after Accy but critasism is certainly due after tonight.

Amos - made a couple of decent saves, had no chance on either goal.

Lloyd - didn't have any attacking impact on the game and on the back foot defensively throughout.

Pearce - had one or two decent crosses but offered very little going forward and didn't impress defensively. He's just not looked the same player this season. That 450k move to Barnsley he rejected is looking increasingly like it will backfire for us.

Tilt was excellent for me, MOTM.

Kerr I felt showed a lot of promise, it wasn't a perfect debut but I felt it was pretty decent. He also probably won't play a team who play better football than Sunderland did tonight so it was a bit of a hard first outing.

Cousins - when it's going well he looks like a composed, calming influence but when it's not going well he just doesn't seem to do enough. Tonight was the later unfortunately.

Smith - one of the few who I think constantly showed for the ball and tried to take responsibility but he had very little help in trying to get things going. Had a decent game, there's a lot of Max Power about him.

Edwards - none of the attacking midfield trio got the ball much at feet with most balls just pumped over their heads but they never really came short to link up and get the ball or push up to help Humphrys. Edwards just didn't do anything really.

Massey - named captain tonight and played more as a no10 in Richardson's latest attempt to try and tease something resembling a performance out of him. It didn't work, he's a lost cause.

Jones - showed a few glimpses of quality but not enough.

Humphrys - totally isolated with no service. He's never been a target man so set up to fail with the balls played at him.

Overall it was a terrible game from our perspective but I think in football you sometimes don't really learn or change without a frustrating or painful loss. Today really highlighted our weaknesses and showed us a better alternative- hopefully it will be a valuable lesson learned that we can avoid making again in the league.
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Superb summary once again.
 
My abiding memory of tonight was after a Sunderland corner the ball came out to Massey on the edge of our area. Massey with about 20 yards of naked grass in front of him hoofed it up to Humphries, who just happened to still be in our area doing defensive duties from the corner.

Perm any one from 4 Sunderland defenders to collect the ball on the half way line and bring it straight back at us.

Daft move bringing Lang on. Our best player whilst on the pitch but put that much effort in compared to what was already on th pitch he nearly got himself injured. He and Keane are 2 player we cannot afford to lose if this is all we have as back.

One word describes tonights performance. Impotent!!
 
ExiledViking said:
🤣🤣🤣🤣
There's been a MASSIVE over reaction tonight.
People losing their shit over a cup competition we had absolutely no chance of winning anyway 🤦
We got to the 3rd round without getting out of 1st gear, and tonight was no different.

STOP. BLOODY. PANICKING...
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bet you said the same thing in 2013.
 
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